Tag Archives: Iraq

4 years have passed since the 73rd genocide of the Yazidis in Sinjar (Şengal), but tens of thousands of people are still displaced from their homes, and thousands remain captive in the hands of the terrorists who perpetrated this crime against humanity. However, the people of Sinjar survived and emerged from the genocide to build a new life.

Throughout history, the Yazidi society has faced many genocides, and in 2014 this happened once again – this time occurring in front of the eyes of world. On the fourth anniversary of this genocide, though the wounds of Sinjar have not completely healed, the Yazidi society has created a new life for themselves after surviving the killing, kidnapping, torture, and pain of this most recent genocide. Continue reading →

Contained in the pages that follow is a report of a recent delegation visit to Iraqi Kurdistan that took place between 17th and 22nd July 2017. The delegation consisted of the Director of International for UNITE the Union and the Director of the Centre for Kurdish Progress;

The delegation met with a whole range of people and organisations including Members of Parliament, the Speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament, The KRG government’s official spokesperson, senior figures from various political parties, representatives of civil society,

On August 3rd 2017 is the third anniversary of the genocidal attack by the so-called IslamicState (IS) on Êzidi (Yazidi) Kurds in the Northern Iraqi city of Sinjar. Starting on August 3, 2014 theattacks and massacres caused a humanitarian catastrophe but importantly had the genocidal objectiveof eradicating the whole Êzidi community. Women were systematically targeted within this genocide andtherefore it also constitutes a feminicide.On August 3, 2014 the world became witness to a genocidal attack by IS, having the ultimate goal ofeliminating one of the oldest religious communities in the world, the Êzidis. Rendered helpless anddefenceless when the peshmerga troops of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) withdrew from theirpositions in Sinjar without prior warning, the Êzidi community suffered systematic massacre, rape,torture, displacement, enslavement of girls and women and forced recruitment of boys as child soldiers.Continue reading →

Turkey and it’s ally Mahmoud Barzani have in the last weeks threatened to attack Sinjar. We as Yazidi’s are baffled that they want to attack the survivors of a genocide.

At the same time we declare that we will defend ourselves this time against any attack. We as YBS and YJS will fight against any force that attacks us.

Turkey has no right to attack a minority in another country. The KDP Peshmerga have no right to attack us as Sinjar is not part of the KRG but falls under the jurisdiction of Baghdad. We remind the world that the KDP Peshmerga fled when we were attacked by ISIS. Continue reading →

We are concerned about the BBC’s coverage of the Raqqa operation, which oscillates between false and negligent.

We urge the BBC to stick to rigorous fact checking, and not base its news coverage on incomplete and biased reports, before spreading news such as seen last week, claiming that ‘it is problematic that the predominantly Kurdish forces, with the help of the US, are making a push for Raqqa, which is mainly Arab, as the Kurds have been known to expel Arabs from the villages that they have liberated.’ This claim is based on a report by Amnesty International from October 2015. If the BBC references this report, it should also consider the Rojava administration’s response to it and consult other experts on the issue. Continue reading →

REPAK, the Kurdish Women’s Relations Office based in Erbil, has published this statement on the one year anniversary of the IS attack on Sinjar/Shengal, which led to a horrific massacre in which thousands of Yezidi people were killed, thousands taken into sexual slavery and many more thousands were displaced.

To the press and public

Exactly one year ago, gangs of the so-called Islamic State (IS) tried to carry out genocide in the Southern Kurdish (Northern Iraqi), mostly by Yazidis inhabited city Shingal/Sinjar. On 3 August 2014, IS aimed to occupy Shingal by massacres and ethnic cleansing in the villages around. According to numbers of the UN, due to the massacres that started on 3 August, 5 thousand Kurdish Yazidis got killed, 7 thousand girls and women got kidnapped like trophies, enslaved by IS gangs and sold in slavery markets. Even though some of the women were able to escape, a lot of women committed suicide for escaping from this atrocity. But still thousands of women remain in the hands of IS. Continue reading →

The urgency of the present situation facing the people of Kobane and the longer term implications of the transformation of the Middle East were issues addressed at the public meeting in the House of Lords on 12 January which was jointly organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and Kurdistan National Congress (KNK).

Titled The Collapsed State Systems in Syria & Iraq and the Rise of ISIS & the Kurds, the meeting discussed the Kurdish role in the fight against ISIS and the alternative model offered by the establishment of the self-administration in Rojava.

As host, Lord Hylton stated the Kurds still need all the friends that they can get and this was especially the case in respect of the unrecognised entity of Rojava where urgently needed supplies were only getting through with great difficulty. Continue reading →

Peace and stability in Turkey, Kurdistan, the Middle East and the wider world: a personal perspective on the events of the year just gone and prospects for the future.

By David Morgan, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign, 1 January 2015Peace and stability in Turkey, in Kurdistan, in the Middle East and in the wider world might seem extremely precarious and elusive prospects in the light of the descent into chaos in Syria and Iraq witnessed in 2014, but there is never an option to entirely give up hope if you believe in life and it is a natural instinct for all living creatures to desire to continue to live in a state of comfort where basic wants for food, sustenance and love are satisfied. Thousands of years of human progress, enlightenment, ingenuity, creativity and inventiveness cannot simply be wiped out by the wars, wanton destruction and genocide endured in the recent period. It may seem that the world has entered a new dark age but the darkest forces that have emerged on the scene are being strenuously resisted and thus confidently we can predict that they can be eliminated by the forces of light and hope who are ultimately far stronger than their assailants for the simple reason that they offer greater prospects of a better life for more people. It is surely the shared values of socialism, cooperation, respect, tolerance, solidarity, that will continue to inspire and drive humanity forward creating a better world for men and women in equal measure. Harmony can assuredly triumph over discord through our combined human efforts. The alternative is simply too bleak to even imagine.Continue reading →

The Collapsed State Systems in Syria & Iraq and the Rise of ISIS & the Kurds

The immediate origins of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) lie in the opportunity spaces provided by two bitter civil wars that challenged the existing state system and borders created by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of World War I: (1) The bloody Sunni-Shia civil war in Iraq that followed the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, and (2) the even more horrific civil war that has been raging in Syria since 2011. ISIS has gained its strength from a wide range of political, sociological, economic, and military factors, among others, and Turkey has played a very controversial role in this complex situation.

Three months after ISIS fighters attacked the Iraqi region on Sinjar, the fate of thousands of women kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery following the raids is still unknown and no international investigation into their welfare has taken place. However, just as it has done in the defence of Kobane in Syria, the Kurdish Women’s Movement has mobilised with allied organisations to take action for the missing women.

This event will bring together women activists and representatives of the Kurdish women’s organisations to give you first-hand information about how people have responded to the crisis on the ground. We’ll also discuss the unique potential within the Kurdish Women’s Movement for engendering gender liberation in the region and its role in the development of the Rojava revolution.

EMERGENCY APPEAL FOR AFRIN

Life in Afrin

Weekly News Briefing

Jeremy Corbyn issues statement of support for the National Demo

Message from Jeremy Corbyn to Kurdish national demonstration in London:
“I’m sorry not to be able to be with you today, but I send a message of solidarity with today’s demonstration, and with the Kurdish people, under sustained attack across the Middle East.
The conflict in Syria has been the trigger for an onslaught against the Kurdish people, who are defending their autonomy and their rights.
We are watching closely the alarming events that have been unfolding in Turkey in recent weeks, including the killing of civilians and destruction of Kurdish homes.
Any negotiated settlement of the Syrian conflict must include peace and justice for the Kurds, including in Turkey. And the Turkish government needs as a matter of urgency to restart the peace process with the Kurds and respect the rights of all its people.
We call for an end to repression of the Kurds and justice for the Kurdish people throughout the Middle East.”

Destruction and Repression in North Kurdistan

Freedom for Ocalan!

On the 19th anniversary of his kidnap and imprisonment by Turkey, we renew our call for Abdullah Ocalan to be freed as part of a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.